The Siege of Donya Fortress
by TheMelkMaschine
Summary: Sergeant Joseph "Joey" Mitchell has recently been deployed into Iran and after only a few weeks of fighting for the Tehran Highway, is redeployed into the sector where "Donya Fortress" the most heavily defended and fortified Russian position in Iran stands. Him and his best Friend are hailed into the Command Tent where they are told about a plan that could change this war forever
1. Prologue: Bad Descisions

**Battlefield 3 FanFiction: The Attack on Donya Fortress, **

**SGT. Joseph "Joey" Mitchell USMC**

**Age: 21 Height 6,1" **

**Rank: Sergeant **

**Prologue: Bad Descisions**

* * *

I went down hard. A mortar Shell stomped its way into the drivers compartment of our APC on our way to the already underway siege of Donya Fortress. We were forced to bail, but not after another Mortar went right through the back of the APC. I dove for cover, not knowing or caring that I almost dove onto a mine.

After regaining some of my motor skills, I decided to make my way on foot, vehicles were too big of a Target for me now anyways and the so proclaimed "Fortress" was only a quarter click south of me.

I seemed not to care that all around me there lay charred remains of my companions and Squad Mates. I fully came to my senses when I tripped over the ripped in half body of SGT. Mayweather. I couldn't bring myself to look at him for more than a second, it made my stomach churn.

Before I knew it, my bowels were right in front of me and saying hi to me in a greenish yellow glow.

"Fuck, shouldn't have had that soup before leaving." I thought to myself when suddenly I heard a sound that restored Hope into my soul for the time being.

I quickly turned around to see that my best friend, David had survived the initial bombardment of our APC.

"Barton" I said with a warm smile. "Joey, you look like shit, take a shower man." he said while trying to look serious. "yes sir right away." I managed to spurt out before tripping over Mayweathers remains again, landing face first on his ripped up chest.

David got me up and looked at me sternly "We need to advance, or we wont see any of the action". He said, while looking at me with an Expression I couldn't quite understand. It was a mix among thirst for action and Panic. I silently complied as we made our way to the Fortress. We didn't say a Word until we got to the Main Outpost which to me, looked like a scene from SAW. There was nothing appealing here. Everywhere I looked, People lay dying infront of me, I didn't even want to take a look at the Medical Tent, it probably would've been worse. I can't even begin to think what the Medics were feeling right now. What is going through their head when they realize a man is beyond saving? Do they tell him it's going to be okay? Do they tell him the truth? I guess i'll not know until I'm the one being operated on myself if things take a turn for the worse during the siege. Which I hope will not happen, at least not to me.

"Barton, Mitchell!, get your lazy asses over here!" a low voice bellowed out of the Command Tent. We both knew who it was already. It was Captain Bridges, the hardest of all the hardasses I have ever seen. He was about 6 foot 3 and was made out of a bulky build. Before joining the USMC, he was an MMA fighter, so you know where youd land when you talk back, on the ground with a broken back. Trust me, he wasn't very likeable but the most important thing you can ever do to him, is respect him. If he notices, after a while he will give you his respect in return and I trust you with my life on this, is what keeps me going sometimes. For example, I was lying face first in a Foxhole covering my head scared to death while we were taking Damavand Peak back in January. I couldn't move until the all to familiar voice shot through my head. "Mitchell you scared piece of Dog Shit! You took an oath to serve and protect your Country and you're relaxing in a fucking ditch? get up Soldier before I lose my respect for my best fighting man in my platoon!". Hell of a way to motivate right? Well, it worked. I got up and ran my ass into combat.

But back to now. We entered the Tent silently. "Siddown" He said in a half hearted command. I knew at this very moment that the news was not going to be good. "We are losing a lot of men, and we can't just send in more, that'd be suicide for the Soldiers. So we are going to pull back to a click west of the Fortress and send in 2 squads of our best men. I take it you now know why you are here?". We silently nodded and looked at one another. "S-sir?" David stammered, not knowing what to think of at first. "Why can't Delta Force take care of it? We're not trained for covert Missions.". "Well, theres the problem Barton, Delta force is too caught up helping liberate the Tehran Highway so out heavy Armor can roll in and..." Bridges eyes glazed over. I've never seen him this way before, whatever he was going to tell us, was tearing him apart from the inside. "Whats wrong cap?" I managed to say before he spoke up again.

"When you're inside, you will be by yourselves, there will be no reinforcements, no air support, no artillery." "What?" David spurted. "It has to be this way, the russians need to think they've won, that's why we are sending you in, You weaken them from the inside and then we can launch our attack at them." He hated every minute of this and he knew that we saw it. "This is a suicide mission! You can't be Serious. Bridges plea-." He said before being interrupted by the visibly distraught Captain. "I know this is very dangerous, but it's the only way. We haven't been able to get in a single man into that damned fortress, I need you to do this, you are the best of the Platoon and you plus the people I've selected are the only people that I can trust on this Mission. Now pack up and be ready by nightfall, move out."

We headed straight towards the Supply Tent before David stopped me. "This is batshit insane man." He bluttered out nervously. "How can he send us into the most heavily fortified Russian position in Iran?". "Did you see the look on his face? Whatever he told us to do, it wasn't him who decided on it, it was probably those High Class Generals with an O-10 Pay Grade." I told him, reassuring him that Bridges had nothing to do with it.

"Yeah you're probably right" He said with reason in his voice. "Come on, let's go see who else was enlisted into this suicide mission." I said with a stiff looking smile covering my face. "I hope it's not those stuck up assholes from Echo Squad" which caused me to spurt out laughing. "Let's hope so" I said while laughing. That was the last time we managed to actually laugh. I was surprised at who was picked for the mission. Heres who got Enlisted:

* * *

**Alpha Squad:**

- SSGT. Summers: One hell of a man, hes seen things I wish I hadn't. He's a Natural Born leader and I wonder to this day, Why he hasn't been promoted yet.

- PFC. Aarons: He doesn't talk much but hes one hell of a fighter. I'm glad hes on this Mission.

- Cpl. Stallard: Explosives Expert, but he talks like hes got a stick up his ass when not in Combat.

- LCpl. Feany: Of Irish descent. CQC skills are outstanding, I guess hes been in one too many Bar Fights over the years.

**Then there's my Squad Aside from me there is:**

- Lt. Barton: My best friend David. He's got the best shot that I have ever seen. I wonder why he didn't sign up for Recon.

- Pvt. Delouise: The most inexperienced of all. But hes not afraid to get his hands dirty.

- Cpl. Tracey: Hes Fluent in Russian. So he is needed direly for this Mission.

* * *

We exchanged Formalities and headed to the Briefing Room. Bridges was waiting for us, visibly thinking about the things we were going to experience. Beside him was General Hayzelden. He looked completely unphased at what was going to happen in the next few days. I wanted to choke the mans grin off his face. Did he not care for us? "If anything happens, I will personally find this man, and put a bullet through his mouth" I thought to myself while I tried to get in Control of my pent up Rage.

"Greetings soldiers." he said in a monotone voice void of all Emotion. He really didn't care, he showed no signs of either regret or nervousness on his "Too pretty for Combat" Face.

"We have selected you for this Mission, because we know you are some of the best Marines that have ever lived in your Generation." I felt honored, but at the same time i thought of how noone would ever say that again, as this was a Classified Mission.

"What I have here is a Blueprint of the Fortress." he said with his signautre shit eating grin on his face. "Alpha Squad, you will take care of the covert part of this Mission, you will be disguised as Iranian Prisoners, and you will be guided in by Beta Squad, led by Lieutenant Barton.".

"Um sir?" Feany said, "Why as Irani Prisoners?". "Because you don't want to know what they do to americans.". Whatever they did to americans, it was probably not very tasteful. Feany gulped, trying to keep his Dinner inside him.

"Anyways, Beta Squad will be disguised as Russian special Forces who have taken them in for "Questioning" as they are supposed Allies of our Army. "Tracey, you will take on the role of the Russian Squad Leader as you are fluent in Russian.".

"Yes sir" He replied nervously.

"You will enter here." as he pointed to a side entrance of the fortress. It was barely visible considering it was covered with dense rubble and foliage. I doubt the Russians even know it exists, which could help us in our favor.

"It will be less guarded, if Guards are stationed there anyways, than the rest of the Entrances, as thats the only side we are not stationed on.". That comment made me wince. "He doesn't even know if its guarded and hes sending us face first through that door." I angrily thought to myself. Iclenched my fist but managed to calm myself down.

"Once you are in, you will put C4 on each heavy gun, supply cache, radi equipment and anything that looks useful that you can find."

He pointed at Stallard. "That's where you come in." he said and Stallard nodded quietly.

"Once that is done, you will exit the same way you came, telling the any Russian that wants to know that these prisoners are being transferred to another spot, as they have Vital information and need to be interrogated.".

"Then you'll be back here to report to me." he said while attempting to look intimidating. It didn't work.

I shifted over to David and whispered "Something tells me this isn't going to be as easy as hes making it out to be." and David silently agreed.

"You have 2 hours to gear up Beta Squad, move out.".

"What about us?" Aarons blurted out. "You're prisoners, remember? You'll find weapons when you're inside.". Aarons, visibly scared, just walked away.

I knew that not everyone was going to make it back as Hayzelden made it seem. Theres always a chink in every generals so called "Master Plans to end the War". With uncertainty in my Heart, I walked into the Supply Tent and geared up for the upcoming Mission.

We waited for what seemed like and Eternity. 2 hours seemed like 15 years, but we were mentally ready.

The driver arrived in a battered Russian Vodnik. The drive took us longer as we had to drive away from the Fortress first and the take a bend to a passage where we hadn't set up our troops yet.

The Vodnik screeched to a halt and we dismounted about a click west of the Fortress.

We went over all our plans again so nothing would go horribly wrong.

Just as we got into sights range of the Fortress, fog rolled over the Land.

"We're in luck fellas!" Aarons exclaimed happily. But every sign of hope and happines faded when we set our eyes upon the Fortress. All our Hearts sank into our boots.

* * *

***This is what I would call the Warm up to the Story, I hope you enjoyed it and will read on when I've updated it.***


	2. Chapter 1: Fading Hope

Chapter 1: Fading Hope

"Oh my god." Feany muttered. It was like nothing we've ever seen before. There was no way we were going to take this Fortress with just 8 men.  
It was astronomically big for something that isn't a highrise building. It had 10 feet thick Concrete walls surrounding the heart of the base. Every few yards or so, there was a heavy MG stationed right on the wall. 2 monstrous Wacthtowers hunkered in front of Donya Fortress which made every man with a brain and a gun feel small and worthless. It must've been a Mosque in one way or another before becoming the most heavily fortified Russian position in all of Iran, because it certainly had the Mosque feeling to it. Spherical roofs, small tower things and come to think of it,  
I've never been good at explaining things anyway.

"How on earth are we supposed to get inside this thing without being noticed?" David demanded. "Theres no way in h-". I cut him off before he could demoralise us even more.

"Common' Dave, we're more than capable of infiltrating this thing, we have the fog on our side." I told him, trying to calm him down.

"I hope you're right." he shrugged. He was scared, and I knew it. Summers, who didn't bat an eyelash at the sheer monstrosity of concrete in front of him spoke up, and everyone instantly fell silent.  
Although David was the highest ranked here, Summers was still clearly the boss.

"We don't have time for this, we need to get in there and finish flush out the Fortress from the inside. Or do you want the Russians knocking down your families doors when they launch an attack on the states?" he said in an almost indiffirent voice. Everyone complied and made their way towards our supposed entry point. The fog got thicker until we couldn't see ten feet in front of us.

"STOP!" a voice commanded from the rear. It was Delouise, and he almost stepped on a mine.

We had walked straight onto a minefield. Hayzelden didn't know what was coming to him if I survived this. Hes putting our lives on the line so he can take the credit for when this is over.I resented the man.

* * *

_Ever since he'd ordered an attack on the Caspian Border back in late May. We were outnumbered 8 to 1 but he made us charge in anyway. We lost 3 quarters of our Platoon before even reaching the actual border itself before being caught there for more than 3 days. The land strip between the 2 Countries was called "The Grim Reapers Road". It was 100 feet of nothing. Many tried to get over it, but all of them perished._  
_Snipers and MG foxholes were dug in everywhere. We couldn't advance nor fall back. Out of the 90 men that charged into the battle, 12 remained including me, David and SSGT. Summers. He had awarded us with medals, without taking any responsibilities whatsoever for the loss of 72 Marines. Marines that will never return home. He just smiled through the medal ceremony not showing a care in the world of what had happened at the border just 2 clicks south of where he was standing. Pvt. Bray, one of the survivors even told me that he thought Hayzelden was enjoying it. Whatever he was thinking, I promised myself than when this war was over, I'd atleast put my fist through his teeth to wipe that perma-grin of his face._

* * *

"We walked straight onto a goddamn minefield." I sighed. "Everyone be careful and stack up on me, follow my footprints, i'll lead the way.". I started walking slowly forwards, avoiding mine after mine after mine. It seemed like 5 hours had passed when we finally cleared the minefield. Every single step was a gamble with life or death. Some mines were buried and some weren't. It was like playing blackjack with your feet.

"Hey dave, how long did that take us?" I asked him. "13 fucking minutes." he boldy stated. "Didn't seem like it." I wheezed, still out of breath from dancing around mines.

"We should keep moving." I pointed towards the general direction of the Fortress.

"Yeah, you're right." David agreed, and motioned to everyone to keep alert, but move in a quicker pace.

It started to rain. "This is just getting better and better." Tracy cursed. I hadn't seen this much rain since the skirmish at Tehrans great Bazaar. It didn't just rain, it was like God was pouring buckets of water onto the earth. Now add Fog and you have a great recipe for tripping over your own feet. Which i was very good at actually. Aside from my normal nickname "Joey" I also got called a "Two legged Tripod" by my DI at basic. That name has been sticking with me since.

* * *

"Theres the Entrance!" Stallard exclaimed in a hush tone. Even though it was thundering like a madman up in the skies, you never know if a sentry was just up on the walls. We stacked up on the door and Feany slowly opened it, and what was behind it, made him rip the door of its rusty hinges. The passage behind the door was walled shut by atleast 5 feet of solid concrete.

"This is bullshit." Aarons snapped. "How the hell are we supposed to get in now?".

"I might have a plan." I said calmly. "I saw on the satellite images that somewhere along the wall, there was a rip. We could enter from there.".

"That's suicide!" Delouise said in a panicked tone.

"Isn't this entire mission?" I said and smirked at him. "It's our only way aside from barging down the front door.".

"But we have no weapons" Aarons said. I tossed him my pistol and I motioned for the rest of my squad to do the same for the others.

"Who says we can't use a little bullet persuasuion?". I held up my gun. It was an AS VAL, and it was one of the best weapons i've fired in a long time.

"Everyone suit up and put on silencers, we're going through the wall gap." Summers said.

It took us some time before finding the gap, but we eventually came across it. It was a big thing. A huge gash running along 50 feet of the wall. We carefully made our way towards it, consatntly looking at our feet to make sure we didn't step onto another minefield. Just as we reached the gash, a fighter jet, an F18 Superhornet to be exact dove down and went up in flames 200 feet in front of us. We saw the pilot eject and his parachute opening straight above Donya Fortress.

"At least we have an involuntary disctraction now." Stallard muttered.

"And now we have another objective, get the pilot out of the Fortress aswell, if he isn't dead by the time we get to him." I said, not knowing that that wasn't what everyone wanted to hear.

"Are you mad?" Feany snapped at me. "That'll just get us killed!".

"If you were in the pilots position Feany, you'd want to be rescued aswell, you know what they do to Americans.". It was Summers that spoke up. He hasn't said anything for a few hours now.

"Alright alright, but if one of us dies because of him, I will personally hand him back to the Russians." he scoffed.

We walked staright through the gash before anyone could check on the wreckage and snuck along the inside of the wall until we reached an old destroyed pagoda of some sort. it had a glass roof and old marble walls, but conviniently had a big hole in it.

"We seem to have luck finding holes today." Delouise said. "As long as nothing bad is on the other side, I don't mind."

We squeezed our way through the opening and were finally inside the Fortress itself. It was beautiful. The actual Fortress exterior was made out of marble and lined with carved in decorations.

* * *

_It's like it hasn't even seen the war at all. If I were to describe it all, i'd be here for days. We had no time to waste and made our way through the "Greenhouse". What was in it ruined my taste though. It was the Fortresses Morgue. Like when I found Mayweather, I couldn't look at them. They weren't even Russian soldiers, they were executed civillians. It made me sick to think this is where interrogation victims end up. With a bullet through their heads. Feany was struggling with keeping his stomach contents inside of him. To be honest, everyone was. Just the thought of civillians being gunned down made me want to blow this fortress of the face of the planet. I stopped to look at a woman, hogtied on the floor with a bullet through her brian. She was pregnant._

* * *

"What fucking cowards." I said through clenched teeth just as David reached over to my shoulder, trying to calm me down. I swatted his hand away and glared at him.

"Don't touch me." I hissed. David, visibly shocked, tried to bring me to my senses.

"Dude, don't take your shit out on me, this isn't my fault and we couldn't do anything to stop it.".

"Can we do this later guys? We need to keep moving and arguing in english in a Russian base seems like a bad idea doesn't it?". We turned around to see Summers glaring at us.  
I don't why, but we instantly complied and fell into line. I can see why he's a natural born leader. He doesn't need to speak, his eyes do all the talking.

We came out of the greenhouse and were greeted by 3 possible routes to take. a double door straight ahead, and two stairwells leading from left to the right up to a hallway.

"Where the hell do we go now? Splitting up won't work." Stallard asked.

"We roll a dice." I said while pulling out a die from my pocket. "1 and 2 we go left, 3 and 4 we go right, 5 and 6 we go straight."

I threw the dice on the ground and looked at it. "It landed on 4.".

I pointed to the right and we got to the bottom when we heard something that made us freeze. It was 2 Russian soldiers slowly heading towards us.

I yelled at Tracy in a hushed tone. "Quick! get into Character!".

* * *

He knew what to do the second i told him. He started walking up to the Russian soldiers and when he arrived he told them the story we were 'acting' out. The soldiers pointed him in some direction and laughed. Tracy said his farewell and walked towards us.

"They believed every word." He smirked.

A wave of relief hit our bodies. "What did you ask them?" I asked.

"Where the interrogation rooms are." he replied.

"Well now we know where to find the pilot."

"Common', let's go." I pointed towards the long hallway with the large room at the end of it. We almost entered as Feany pulled us back.

"Guys, look at this!" he said as he pointed towards a Laptop with what seems to be Intel of the american Base of Operations.

"Copy it onto the flash drive." Summers ordered. "Stallard, get some C4 on the back of the crate."

Stallard complied and put a some of the plastic explosive behind the crate the laptop was stationed on.

"Awfully quiet, for us being in a huge Russian ba-" I was cut off by a roaring thud. The entire Fortress shook heavily and most of us lost our footing.  
After I got up and ran to the door, i saw the room we were about to enter was now a smoking hole. An american Artillery shell hit the Building right in its arms locker and punched right through to the Fortress Kitchen.

"What on earth?" Tracy said while breathing heavily.

"I thought Bridges said we were on our own!" David managed to spurt out before his bowels released fresh vomit from his mouth.

"It was probably that asshole Hayzelden!." I shouted, but at the same time trying to keep as quiet as a shout can go.

"Doesn't matter, all that matters is that that almost killed us!" Stallard wheezed.

"We need to get on the walls! I saw some heavy gun emplacements up there." I ordered and me and Stallard ran towards a ladder on the outside of the hallway and we scaled the roof with it. We saw 2 mobile SAM'S and some 20mm cannons.

I looked at Stallard. "You know what to do." and he nodded and ran towards the emplacements, but not before giving me some C4 to place aswell. I ran as fast as I could, but not without staying in character. I tried to look hectic, seeing if every gun emplacements was still functional. Noone seemed to notice, but there was only a handful of Soldiers there, about 20 or so. Something seemed off about that but at the time, all I could think of was placing that C4.

"Everything placed?" Stallard asked over my Radio clipped onto my Kevlar vest.

"Affirmative" I hastily replied.

I made my way back down and met with the others. Everything was placed and at the same time, me and Stallard triggered the C4. A mighty explosion rocked the Fortress again. Our job was done.

* * *

"We're done, let's get out of here!" Feany commanded.

"The Pilot!" I blurted out.

"Let's get to the Interrogation rooms" Tracy said.

We ran down the hallway towards the Interrogation rooms. The guards tried to stop us, but I quickly drew my pistol and shot both of them in the head. I was shocked at myself for offing two men so quickly.  
I didn't even bat an eyelash at the thought of ending their lives. Summers busted open the door and saw the pilot about to be executed and Summers dove at the Russian soldier engaging him in CQC. There was a window right behind the Russian soldier and the flew through it. Noone got a clear shot so all we could do was watch as both of the struggled. First the Russian had the upper hand, beating in on Summers'  
ribcage with his fists. Then Summers' was on top of him landing punches on the soldiers face. Then the bloodied Russian was on top and pulled his boot knife and hurled his arm at Summers' face. He avoided and counterattacked by pulling his own knife and driving it deep into the Russians chest. He shoved the dead crumpled heap of the Russian soldier off him and stood up.

"I'm fine, you guys get the Pilot out of here, i'll meet up wth you guys at the exit." he said.

We agreed and untied the pilot.

"Name and rank soldier." David asked him.

"Staff Sergeant Miller sir.". He replied.

"We've come to get you out of here." I told him reassuringly. "We're not here to hurt you.".

"Thank you." he mouthed before we heard gunfire and a dry of pain at the end of the hallway and seconds later, it had died down.

* * *

We dashed towards the sounds and Summers was lying motionlessly on the ground. We quickly took care of the 2 Russian soldiers that shot him.  
He had no more vital signs, we were to late. My eyes glazed over as I ripped his dogtags from his neck.

"We have to keep moving.". David was behind me and he picked me up of the ground. I wasted no time and began running after the rest of my squad mates. But we were stopped by a wave of at least 10 Russian soldiers that instantly pinned us down. We didn't have time for this at all. We couldn't move and our cover wasn't going to hold for long. Most of it was made out of wood anyway and the cover that wasn't was thin stone walls.

"Joey!" David shouted and looked at me, pointing at the grenades that were clipped to my Uniform. I had 3 of them. I threw one to David and we pulled the pins.

"On three!"

"One, two, three!"

We threw the grenades down the hallway and they exploded just at the right time. We seem to have a good sense of timing. I heard the screaming as the Soldiers were torn apart. It made me cringe. I couldn't imagine what it was like to be ripped apart by a grenade. The pain must be excrutiating. I cleared my head of the images and we made for the exit. We managed to clean up the rest of the resistance and went up to the balcony overlooking the courtyard to contact Hayzelden and Bridges.

* * *

"Hayzelden, Bridges, come in, over.". Stallard spoke clearly into the radio.

"This is Hayzelden, have you destroyed the emplacements, over?" he replied in his almost bored voice.

"Everything is done, but Summers didn't make it.".

"What a shame, he was a good man.".

I wanted to kill this man. I needed to kill this man but I couldn't give in to that wish, it would land me in jail with a dishonorable discharge.

"I know this is a bad time to say this, but we've just learned that Donya Fortress was originally a Mosque, and the _Iranian War Treaty_ signed by us at the start of the war that ordered not to attack religious buildings."

There was an eerie silence.

"You have broken the War Treaty and are hereby under arrest, return to base immediately."

I grabbed the mic from Stallards shocked hands.

"Hayzelden you worthless piece of shit, you knew this was going to happen." I said coldly.

"That's no way to talk to your CO Mitchell, now return to base or freely or we will make you return, dead or alive."

I pulled my gun and shot into the radio.

"We're on our own. hayzelden did this on purpose, why else would there be barely any soldiers in the base, he lied to us and we can't trust anyone but ourselves." I said while my mind race with the thoughts of being killed at the hands of our own brothers in arms.

"What do we do know?" Aarons asked, visibly terrified.

"Whatever we have to do to survive, we need to show everyone who hayzelden really is, we're fugitives now, we need to leave the country."

One of the most experienced generals in the USMC has just turned on us, and he had an entire army following him. We stood no chance if we were to face him head on, we needed a better plan. I just hope Bridges was ok.

* * *

***I apologize for not having the exact layout of Donya Fortress. I hope you enjoyed it and will keep reading on. Until Next time!***


	3. Chapter 2: With Nothing to Lose

**Chapter 2: With Nothing to Lose.**

_"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it. "_  
- Desiderius Erasmus,

* * *

"We need to get out of here, and fast." David muttered into his knees. He was sitting next to a wall with his knees to his forehead grumbling about what had just happened. Stallard was pacing back and forth trying to figure out what had just happened, Delouise was straing into space aimlessly and the rest were either looking at one another in shock or checking their weapons to see if they were still in working order.  
The radio converstaion only took place about 40 seconds ago.

"What the hell do you expect us to do?" Tracey asked him, his eyes expecting answers. David couldn't give him a straight answer.

"I-I.." he stammered. "I don't know." He let his face sink down to the ground. He felt like a failure.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Tracey demanded. "You're our goddamn CO, and you DONT know what to do?" "Pathetic" he sneered. I stood up and slammed him against the railing of the balcony overlooking the courtyard, leaning him over it and threatening to throw him off.

"What has gotten into you man?" "We're all in the same fucking boat here, either you talk to each and every single one of us with respect or atleast try to hide your useless anger." I glared at him.  
I saw the fear that he was clearly trying to hide pour from him in the form of tears. I knew how he felt. Sometimes you can't hide your emotions and to be quite honest, I felt like breaking down right about now. I stood him back onto his feet. He instantly lost his footing and slumped to the ground. I don't blame him, being almost thrown over a railing can give you a scare.

"We need to stick together on this." I told him while pulling him back onto his feet again and looking at him reassuringly. The nice moment didn't last long.

* * *

"Get inside, now!" "Chopper!" Delouise hollered. We didn't waste any seconds and instantly ran down the stairs leading back into another hallway. This part of the Fortress seemed barley untoched. An eerie silence suddenly covered the Fortress, excluding the chopper hovering overhead. Miller quickly peaked through an opening in the wall and turned back to us.

"It's American, an AH-1." "They're looking for us." he said coldly, tightly grasping his firearm. But the bad news didn't stop there. Two Hueys quickly followed and came to a halt over the Courtyard.  
American soldiers quickly rapelled down and gathered on the Fortress floor.

"We need to get out of here!" Stallard hushly exclaimed. "I saw stairs leading to a sort of basement on our way in, this way!" We complied and followed him being as quiet as we could possibly be. We came to a halt by the double doorway that leads straight into the courtyard. The soildiers were still being briefed and I managed to catch the conversation.

* * *

_"Alright listen up everybody, we need to find the war criminals and bring them to Hayzelden, theres a nice price on their heads. Charlie Squad, Delta Squad, search the upper floor. Baker, Reefson, you're seraching the bottom floor with me. Report anything out of the ordinary immediately. Subdue and shoot on sight. Move out."_

* * *

"This way!" Stallard pointed towards the lowering stairs leading to the basement. We wasted no time and when the soldiers cleared the courtyard, we moved out. Just at the bottom of the stairs there was something that looked like a drained pool and to our right, there were stairs leading into the Fortress tunnels.

"Wait here" I motioned everyone to halt. I slowly made my way to the pool and looked around the corner. I backed away instantly. I pointed my finger towards the stairs and told them to go. I had an idea.  
Once everyone had made it down the stairs I slowly pulled a claymore out of my pack and placed it onto the ground, arming it as soon as I placed it. But something made me stop cold. It was the Conversation the two soldiers were having.

* * *

_"I hate this place" the soldier said. "Tell me about it" the other soldier replied. "Isn't it your sons birthday tomorrow?". The soldier smiled "Yeah, hes turning 11 tomorrow." The other soldier patted him on his back._  
_"Don't worry man, this is your last Assignment anyway, you're leaving for America in a week and you can celebrate with him then." he changed the subject afterwards. "Let's just find these guys and bring em' to Hayzelden,_  
_it shouldn't be that hard to find them, they have nowhere to run, we have the entire Fortress surrounded."_

* * *

Was I going to kill a father? My heart ached at the sight of seeing his wife and son having one of their most important members of the family being returned in a casket. I picked the Claymore back up and put it in my pack and instead, pulled a flashbang from my Uniform. _"I'm not going to kill this man"_ I thought to myself. I pulled the pin, through it around the corner and ran towards the stairs. I heard the men scream, it was still a scream of shock and pain, but I was relieved of some sorts that I didn't kill them. I stared down the long streching tunnel. I saw Stallard putting down the last od his C4 on the Tunnel roof.

* * *

"Get over here Mitchell!" he shouted at me. I ran as fast as I could and just as I reached Stallard, American soldiers pured down the stairs. Without a second thought, their Weapons light up in a barrage of gunfire. I dove behind a barrel and looked over to Stallard. He had a desperate look on his face. Secinds later I saw the Deamans Switch in his hand. My stomach tied into a million knots. He looked over to me and stiffly smiled.

"Meet up with the others, i'll hold them off." I couldn't leave him there.

"I can't leave you here! We can do this another way!" I cried. Tears were streaming down my face. I didn't want to lose another man. He looked at me. "It's the only way we can stall them." "Tell the others I didn't make it."  
He tossed me his dogtags. He motioned for me to go.

"Give me covering fire, i'll meet them head on." When the gunfire had died down a bit, both of us popped up and unloaded what we could, trying to get them to duck.

He looked at me one more time and ran towards the soldiers. I looked back one more time and saw him draw his sidearm. He unloaded his clip and before being able to reload, he was gunned down in a barrage of bullets.  
He was still kneeling, clinging on to life by threads. The Assignment leader turned to him and drew his 44. Magnum. He smiled at Stallard and pulled the trigger. His brains splattered onto the floor behind him.  
That's the last time I ever saw Stallard. I've only seen him around in most battles I was fighting in anyway. But he seemed like a brother to me more than ever. Come to think of it, everyone that went on this mission was now like a brother to me. The 7 of us that were left now are the only ones I can trust. I cleared my head and looked at the tunnel one last time. All I saw was a big concrete wall where Stallard placed the C4.  
I looked the other way and saw Tracey wave me over.

* * *

"Wheres Stallard?" he asked me. I silently shook my head and gave him the dogtags. Tracey's expression went dark. Unshed tears were forming in his eyes. I gave put my arms on his shoulders and looked at him.

"He's in a better place than any of us now. We have to keep moving." I said, trying to calm him down. A voice reached us. I was the voice of David.

"We found something that can get us out of here!" "It looks like a sewer entrance."

"Common'" I patted Tracey on the back and walked him over to the opening in the ground.

"Stallard?" David asked. "No" I replied, trying my best to sound strong. I was tired and all I wanted to do was slump onto the ground and cry myself to sleep. I fell into my thoughts as David and Aarons were trying to get the sewer grate open.

Why us? Why would Hayzelden pick us for a mock Mission so he could arrest us? I tried my best to think of any Event that linked us all to Hayzelden. But I was quickly ripped out of my thoughts.

"Mitch, we've got the grate open, let's move!" David said while tugging at my arm. It was a small hole and we wouldn't fit through with our packs on.

"Packs first." David ordered "Only take what you really need, the extra load will only exhaust us more."

I took off all I didn't need. Extra ammo, rations, whatever we had more than enought of we needed to ditch.

"Aarons, keep the mortar, we might need it for later." I said. Aarons silently nodded and strapped the mortar back over his shoulders.

Feany, who hadn't talked for a while, managed to get a tone out of his mouth. "Where do we hide our supplies?" he muttered.

"We destroy them." David answered. The exhaustion was taking a toll on him. He had bloodshot eyes and was on the verge of fainting. Nonetheless, he wasn't going to let it get to him. We piled up all our outsorced material and David lined it with C4. He had some remnants left over. He set it up and we climbed down the triggered the C4 and a large thud was heard above. We reached the bottom and Feany lost control of his bowels. I dont blame him. It smelled of burning and decaying flesh down here.I remembered the greenhouse. It had a small hatch leading downwards. So this is where they kept the older bodies. This was bordering on genocide. We all exchanged quick looks and pressed forward but we were quickly stopped by a large metal door.

"This just gets better and better." I muttered under my breath.

"How do we get through this?" Miller asked.

"I have an idea." David answered. "Mike, shoot at the hinges with your shotgun." Mike was Aarons first name. Aarons pulled out his shotgun and slid a magazine into the gun. It was a Saiga, a Russian built Shotgun but damn,  
it was beautiful. He motioned at us to move back and took aim. 3 consecutive cracks filled the air and the door came tumbling down. I wish I hadn't seen what was behind it. It was a furnace room. But it was used to burn the prisoners bodies.

* * *

"Oh my god." Delouise gagged. Feany vomited again. We had to get through this room, but we didn't want to dive deeper into this horrendous chamber of torment.

"Everyone try to hold your breath." I said, trying to keep my bowels from spewing out. The room was littered with charred remains of civillians. Not even children were spared. I felt the sudden urge to shoot any Russian I could find. This was absolutely sickening. Once we got through the room we were faced with yet another hallway.

"This is the 4th hallway today, I hate always." Feany mumbled, still feeling sick to his stomach.

"Well let's keep moving, there has to be an exit around here somewhere." I told him.

Nothing exciting happened for the next hour or so, it was just one long hallway. Suddenly we were greeted by a gash in the door infront of us. Sunlight was caressing my face. I embraced it for a few seconds and snapped back to my senses.

* * *

"We've made it out of the Fortress." I exclaimed. My hopes were raised that we were going to survive this after all. But they were soon suppresed by the memory of the entire US and Russian Army wanting to kill us. Dread filled my body quicker than the speed of sound. What was on the other side? I feared that soldiers were standing on the other side, ready to gun us down. David didn't waste a single moment and pushed the door open.  
The light blinded us for a few moments and after regaining our daylight vision, we were relieved. The door had led straight into a Forest. We had Nature on our side again.

"We'll use the Foliage to our advantage. We clear the immediate area and set up camp somewhere." David said with relief in his voice. We were all glad to get out of the Fortress, the Tunnels and especially the sewers.  
But some of us weren't so lucky. Summers and Stallard were in a better place now. I envied them for some reason. They didn't have 2 armies on their tail trying to kill them. They were probably sitting somewhere in the clouds being served a cold beer by smoking hot ladies. That thought made me laugh inwardly. I seized my train of thought once more and kept moving with the rest of the guys. We walked for what seemed like an eternity when we noticed we were going slightly upwards, onto a small mountain. It started to rain again and we were drenched in minutes, making walking as trechearous as ever. Walking got increasingly difficult until we came across what seemed to be a cave.

"How long have we been walking?" I asked David.

He looked at his watch. "About 2 hours, I think we've deserved a break." he pointed towards the cave. "This seems like the perfect place."

We were all glad just to get out of the rain. I dropped my pack and slumped myself onto the ground. I was happier than ever to get off my feet. They were burning. Beside me, Aarons was asleep already. I smiled at the fact that we've been in this cave for 30 seconds and hes already napping. David quickly left the cave to scout the area around us. A few minutes later, he came back in.

"I see nothing but forest all around me, aside from the Tehran Broadcast tower, but it's as small as my fingernail." "I think it's safe to start a fire if we manage to find some dry wood." "But for now I think you guys need some rest."

"What about you?" I asked him while sitting up.

"I'm going to stand guard for a bit, I need to clear my head anyways. Tomorrow we can work everything out."

He sent me a relieved look and I quickly returned it. _"Tomorrow"_ I mumbled as my head slumped onto my rolled up pack. Tomorrow seemed so far away. All I could do for now was close my eyes and get some rest. I closed my eyes and dreamt of home. But the visions of home and being with my Family soon were replaced by something I didn't expect to see. I though I had put it behind me. _'Karkand_' I muttered in my head. I suddenly knew what could've been the cause of all this.

***I deeply apologize for the Short chapter. Next chapter I will focus specifically on the dream Mitchell is experiencing which could clear things up for everybody. Until next time!***


End file.
